PurposeConsidering the unmeasurable states of the systems and the previewed reference signal, a novel fuzzy observer-based preview controller, which is a mixed controller of the fuzzy observer-based controller, fuzzy integrator and preview controller, is considered to address the tracking control problem.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ an augmentation technique to construct an augmented error system for uncertain T-S fuzzy discrete-time systems with time-varying uncertainties. Additionally, the authors obtain the corresponding linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions for designing the preview controller.FindingsThis paper discusses the preview tracking problem for nonlinear systems. First, considering the unmeasurable states of the systems and the previewed reference signal, a novel fuzzy observer-based preview controller, which is a mixed controller of the fuzzy observer-based controller, fuzzy integrator, and preview controller, is considered to address the tracking control problem. Then, using the fuzzy Lyapunov functional with the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique, new sufficient conditions for the asymptotic stability of the augmented system are derived by applying the LMI technique. The preview controller and fuzzy observer can be designed in one step. Finally, a numerical example is used to illustrate the effectiveness of the results.Originality/valueAn augmented error system is successfully constructed by the state augmentation approach. A novel preview controller is designed to address the tracking control problem. The preview controller and fuzzy observer can be designed in one step.